Category Archives: health

suprise shoulder ultrasound

12 Thursday Feb 2026

Posted by in health, hospitals, knee saga, knees, sevilla

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Well okay, it wasn’t a surprise that I was getting one but every since I bailed on my shoulder MRI last April (lasted approx 7 seconds in the COFFIN DEATH MACHINE) and got to see another traumatologist in June I’ve been waiting for this appointment. Which also wasn’t a surprise because it seems like all I do these days is wait for appointments. But after having to cancel my cardiology revision on Tuesday DUE TO TRACTORS I was actually expecting yesterday’s way too early phone call to be from them… instead it was from the Hospital Virgen del Rocío saying I had an ultrasound appointment the following morning at 10.00 am. So… surprise!

In the grand scheme of things the chronic shoulder pain I’ve had for… seemingly ever?… doesn’t begin to compete with the FUCKING KNEE PAIN which now seems to be extending to my left knee, possibly due to original fucking knee pain putting lower back out (hello sciatica, my old nemesis) so all movement now is fraught with potentially fucking up… basically everything else? I don’t know. All I know is that everything hurts all the time these days.

Anyhow, back to today’s hospital visit. It actually went very smoothly. Easily found taxis to get me there and back again (not always the case). And since I pretty much know Virgen del Rocío inside out by now I got to my ecografía waiting area just on time (seriously, you try it, they don’t make it easy) and was called in almost immediately. And the doctors were great. I almost felt like I was in a THE PITT episode when a young man came over and introduced himself, telling me his name and saying he was a resident intern (hey we all gotta learn sometime). Happily he was soon accompanied by the actual doctor in charge but she let him search away on my shoulder with the magic wand and there was plenty of back and forthing between them about what they were actually seeing on the screen.

Then the head doc took over and first thing she said was… how do you pronounce your name? I told her and after that she used it every time she had something to tell me. I thought that was a nice touch. Anyhoodle… apparently my shoulder is fucked, as if I didn’t know. It wasn’t possible to see whether the tendon is torn or just (just!) damaged and inflamed. But head doc told me that either outcome wouldn’t change the treatment or the pain involved. When I told her about the MRI debacle she said that for this particular issue an ultrasound is more useful than an MRI. Okey dokey.

So on to treatment. And the here we go again cycle… she said aside from anti-inflammatories and painkillers there might be some physiotherapy that could help but I needed to see the traumatologist again. And so now I wait. Again.

 

 

 

tractors galore

10 Tuesday Feb 2026

Posted by in health, hospitals, sevilla

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Today I had the cardiology revision appointment made last July after cutting Flecainide from my prescription (which immediately made me feel better). I wasn’t sure what they were actually going to do today other than the usual ECG and ask about the tachycardia. Then it turned out they didn’t do anything because I WAS WAYLAID BY HUNDREDS OF TRACTORS and couldn’t go. Well fuck.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully support the demonstration by the thousands of farmers and their hundreds of tractors that brought Sevilla to a standstill today. I just didn’t know it was happening. So if I hadn’t checked the Number 3 bus route for times I wouldn’t have seen the alert (the main tractor route is also my route to the hospital) I would have been so fucked. Now I’m just both relieved and disappointed.

I was able to put in an online request to change today’s appointment so, you know, whatever. It was a revision, hopefully nothing urgent, and now I am waiting to hear about about the new date. But I’d been kind of dreading today, and in a way am a bit annoyed now I couldn’t just get it over with (esp after all the build up over the past few days). But I have a warm purring Morcilla cuddled up on my shoulder as I type (she’s happy I stayed home!) and sossiges & spinach mash coming up for lunch. How was your Tuesday?

grey grey grey

30 Friday Jan 2026

Posted by in birthdays, health, knee saga, knees, seasons, sevilla

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Thank goodness for Birthday Month! I mean, January isn’t most people’s favourite month, but these past few weeks have been particularly grim with storm after storm blasting through town. Which of course makes my ever-shrinking life even smaller as I can’t even get out for a hobble when it’s raining (crutches and umbrellas don’t mix well). So it’s been hard keeping my spirits up. I decided to ask my GP if she would request a new traumatology appointment for me (based on the x-ray I had taken in October, might work) but it was a three-week wait just to get a phone appointment with her. Anyhow, that happens on Monday and I’ve prepared my notes so I don’t forget anything. Wish me luck. I’m so tired.

tipped off

12 Monday Jan 2026

Posted by in health, knee saga, sevilla

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About six or more months ago I bought new rubber tips for my crutches because I saw they were wearing out. I mean, I’ve had these guys for years. I started off with just one, for when I had bouts of sciatia, but then graduated to two the first time I sprained my left ankle (found out years later when I sprained both and got them x-rayed that the original “sprain” had actually been a fracture). 

Anyhow, I’d been putting off replacing them since the first time I tried removing the tips months ago. Those fuckers were welded on! I looked on YouTube… “just bend and twist them”… yeah right. But finally I couldn’t keep putting it off after I was suddenly walking on metal when the crutch shaft broke through the worn out rubber tip. But I mean, there was no way any twisting or turning was going to get the old ones off. And then I thought… exacto knife?

The surgery was carefully performed on the office table with the crutch shaft safely secured while I very slowly sliced and sliced and sliced my way through the rubber until I hit metal. Then I was able to peel the two sides apart and THEN twist it off. Phew. Hopefully that’s it now for another 15 years… 

delusional december

09 Tuesday Dec 2025

Posted by in coronavirus, covid, health, sevilla

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Here we are once again, heading into year 6 of the COVID pandemic and people are still in fucking denial. Even people I know here who have always seemed reasonably reasonable are not only NOT getting their Covid-Flu boosters (although they have been available to everyone in Andalucía for the past couple of weeks) they are also NOT GETTING THEIR KIDS BOOSTED.

I think the greatest trick the Devil every pulled was when they told us early on in the pandemic that KIDS ARE NOT AFFECTED and somehow people chose to believe this. When even the least scientifically-minded person must have wondered… how would that even be possible? Why are kids magically exempt from viral contagion? Well, because they weren’t that’s why. Just like they’re not now. Yet even more than adults they are shoved into crowded social situations every day without any protection or proper ventilation and parents are somehow aghast when their little darlings comes home with yet another “bug” while they also suffer from a litany of symptoms that leave them almost constantly feeling “under the weather”. But god forbid anyone should mention the C-WORD.

Peter has just got over his second “bug” in two months. In October it turned out to be Flu A, this time it apparently was just a cold (he tested negative for Covid-Flu several times over ten days). But he stayed home and wore a mask. We also bought a small hepa filter for his room as it was too cold to open the windows for fresh air. And I think thanks to those precautions I didn’t catch either “bug”.

Which brings me back to… why the fuck won’t people take any precautions at all?? For starters, get vaccinated and keep up to date on your boosters. Wear a mask in crowded situations, especially on public transport. Stay home when you’re sick. If everyone did just those three simple things there would be so much less airborne illness. But people seem intent on pretending we are back to “normal” despite what is right in front of their faces. In short, people are inherently selfish.

[A note: I was reminded by my friend Sharon that one of the worst offenders are health care workers who are not wearing masks in spite of what they should have learned during the worst of times in 2020-2021. Bad enough that patients don’t mask up, but doctors in cancer wards, for example? No excuse.]

Because although Covid-19 is airborne and often presents as a respiratory illness, it is in fact a cardiovascular disease that affects the entire body, ageing blood vessels while destroying immune systems, increasing inflammation and leading to all manner of short and long term complications. IT IS NOT A COLD. And it isn’t seasonal like Flu, which is bad enough (and also isn’t a cold). What’s so frustrating is that we have the tools to help, if not eliminate, significantly reduce transmission. Except nobody cares. There’s no social conscience or sense of civic responsibility any more. Was there ever?

I sit here looking at everyone out there almost frantic in their need to spend and consume, with one obvious example being the over tourism explosion. Investing more and more into the most fragile of economies while destroying the cultures it requires to exist. I mean, just pull one thread and it instantly unravels, and then it’s gone, as we found out in March 2020. And it’s going to happen again.

Anyhoodle… I’m pushing 70 and probably won’t be around when the worst of it happens. At least I hope I’m not. So why then do I care so much? I can’t help it. In spite of all my cranky complaining I still love this world with all my heart. I even love some of the people  😉 Because the best of you are simply awe-inspiring and admirable in your empathy and courage, your talent, your energy and generosity… and so you inspire me to keep getting out of bed and caring. Please don’t ever stop.

The rest of you… either get vaxxed, wear a fucking mask and stay home when you’re sick or fuck off.